Re-painting / Re-skining freight cars?

[Clinchfieldfanatic]

Newbie asking for help....

Does any one know where there is a tutorial on how to re-paint and or re-skin freight cars.

I am planning on doing some coal hoppers.

Also what type of programs would I require?

Thanks

Kevin

[TVRRMAN]

Kevin,

Seeing as you're looking to do the repainting, you're going to need a few tools. The first being you're going to need a program to paint with. For my Artwork, I prefer Jasc Software's (now Adobe) Paint Shop Pro. I'm using Version 7 still. Some modelers also use Adobe Photoshop.

You'll also need a few Rail Simulator related programs: RSBinTool (which can be found at UK Trainsim), and ToAce.

typically, out of the image program, you're going to need to save the file as a dds file for RSBintool to convert it back. Now how do we do that? That's a good question, with an easier answer: you'll want to also download a DDS Conversion plugin which can open or save files as a dds file. I highly recommend Nvidia's DDS Program, Found at this link:

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/phot ... ugins.html

I hope this helps you out some,

[Hawk]

I prefer Jasc Software's (now Adobe) Paint Shop Pro.

Paint Shop Pro is now owned by Corel, not Adobe.

[Clinchfieldfanatic]

Hi all

Does the Nvidia plugun work with PSP 7?

If so how do you install it?

Kevin

[TVRRMAN]

Kevin,

Kevin, the Nvidia plugin indeed works with PSP 7. Should be placed under the plugins folder of PSP7. If PSP7 is installed directly to the default location, it would be: C:\Program Files\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 7\Plugins.

@Hawk: Thanks for the Correction on Jasc Software's ownership. Not entirely sure why I thought adobe..

Hope this helps.

[Clinchfieldfanatic]

Hi TVRRMAN,

I went to the link that you gave. What version of the plugin do I need?

Download Current Version (8.23.1101)
or
Download Legacy Version (7.83.0628)

thanx

Kevin

[Hawk]

@Hawk: Thanks for the Correction on Jasc Software's ownership. Not entirely sure why I thought adobe..

Not a problem.

[TVRRMAN]

Hi TVRRMAN,

I went to the link that you gave. What version of the plugin do I need?

Download Current Version (8.23.1101)
or
Download Legacy Version (7.83.0628)

Kevin,

I think I'm still using the Legacy version.

Good luck,

[calleighpark]

Any luck finding any tutorials on repainting or are you just doing it trial and error. I would also like to dabble in it a little just for fun. thanks, Mike

[chrisale]

I'm trying to reskin a freight car and the free GP9 set from Dickyjim.com

I have yet to find a tutorial (including the one that comes with the GP9 set ironically) that actually shows you what to modify in the image files.

When I open the files, I see a large "canvas" with a number of sections including what look to be livery, color swatches, designs, and other things.

Am I to simply modify those in place, change the colours, etc?

Are they of a specific size? If I wanted to change them geometrically, is there a bound that I need to keep within?

Thank you for your advice.

Chris

[chrisale]

It's also worth noting that there is absolutely no requirement anymore to use Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop... nor to create the special "tga" files. At least none that I can see.

The "RWAceTool" will take any image file, even a lowly jpg, and convert it to an ACE file. So while fancy tools are nice to make multi-layered images that are easy to edit, they are by no means a requirement, and "vector" based graphics program will do. If you're looking for something free on Windows, The GIMP (Graphics Image Manipulation Program) is good.

My main machine is actually a Mac, so I use Pixelmator and simply export out to TIFF files.